Essential duties and responsabilities

The Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History offers a three-year PhD position in Early Modern History in the Ibero-American World focusing on the integration of the New World into the information-régime of the Roman Curia. The position is conceived as a part of a research project led by Dr. Benedetta Albani and entitled “Information as a resource for juridical decision-making processes. Early modern papacy and the emergence of a modern information regime”. The research project is part of a cooperation between the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History in the new DFG-financed Collaborative Research Centre (Sonderforschungsbereich) “Discourses of Weakness and Resource Regimes” (“Schwächediskurse und Ressourcenregime”).

The research project “Information as a resource for juridical decision-making processes. Early modern papacy and the emergence of a modern information regime” problematizes the relationship between the development of discourses about the strength and weakness of the Papacy and the conception of information as a resource for the governance of the Church in the early modern period. On the background of the long lasting undeniable attraction exercised by the Holy See as a reference point in matters of doctrine and law to the whole Catholic world, the project will examine the question whether the aforementioned elements of weakness could be considered as functional for the Church government or for specific models of individual or collective subjects that appeal to the Holy See. Special attention will be paid to the relationship between the Apostolic See and the New World in early modern period. Despite enormous difficulties in the communication system and despite the royal patronage of the Spanish Crown only a few years after the discovery of America the Apostolic See was able to acquire and process information about the New World and to use it in a complex judicial decision procedure. In this frame the PhD dissertation will consider with special attention the relationship between the papacy and the viceroyalty of Peru.

Employment conditions

The dissertations will be developed in the context of an interdisciplinary team. Applicants may be graduated historians, jurists or canonists.

The PhD candidate will be working at the Max-Planck-Institute in Frankfurt (Germany), integrated into the research activities of the research department II, led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Duve in the research field “Legal History of Ibero-America” and in close collaboration with the Max-Planck Research Group “Governance of the Universal Church after the Council of Trent” directed by Dr. Albani. Since the Max-Planck Institute is a research institution, candidates should participate in a PhD program at a university in Germany or elsewhere.

The contract will be given for three years, starting from April 15th, 2015.

The postgraduate remuneration will be governed by the German Collective Agreement for the Public Sector (TVöD) EG 13 (65 %) and is currently 2,268.25 € gross. The working time consists of 39 hours per week.

Sought profile

Language abilities should include Spanish, English, Italian and Latin. Researchers are also expected to be willing to acquire knowledge in German during their stay in Germany.

The Max-Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals.

The Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.